The legacy of a former Law School professor who is credited with founding modern federal Indian law will be the main theme of the third annual Yale Native American Studies Conference, which will be held March 31-April 2.
Titled "Multiple Sovereignties: The Yale Native American Studies Conference Honors Felix Cohen," the event will feature participants from tribal nations across the North American continent as well as scholars of Native American studies and legal experts on the issue of Native American self-governance. Highlights of the event include a reading by a noted Native American writer and a pow-wow celebration. All conference events, unless otherwise indicated, will take place at the Law School, 127 Wall St.
In his "Handbook of Federal Indian Law," Felix Cohen attempted to codify laws regarding Native Americans. As an attorney for the Department of the Interior, he directed a comprehensive survey of federal Indian laws, which served as the basis for his handbook. In the book, he described sovereignty as the inherent right of Native American communities to "self-government." In 1953 he commented, "Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shifts from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall in our democratic faith...."
After leaving government service, Cohen taught at the Yale Law School and began a private practice that included many Native American clients. His personal papers are now part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library's Western Americana Collection. Cohen's widow, Lucy Cohen, and other family members will be in attendance as honored guests at the Yale conference.
In honoring Cohen, the conference will look at the issue of Native American sovereignty in today's political landscape.
"Voluble and acrimonious debates as to the meaning and limits of sovereignty often take center stage in discussions among scholars, activists and politicians," write conference organizers in a brochure about the event. "At the same time, the growth of international organizations, the rise of aboriginal rights movements around the world and the transnational migration of peoples raise questions about sovereignty that would have seemed alien in Cohen's time."
The conference will begin on Friday at 5 p.m. with opening remarks by Jace Weaver, associate professor of American studies and religious studies, who organized the event. A keynote address by Arthur Lazarus, who was a student of Felix Cohen at the Law School and later worked as his associate, will follow. Lazarus, himself a former Yale law professor, represented the Sioux Nation before the U.S. Supreme Court in the tribe's landmark effort to redress the government's appropriation of the Black Hills in 1876.
The conference will resume at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning with a panel discussion exploring the historical perspectives of sovereignty. Alan Trachtenberg, the Neil Gray Jr. Professor of English, will moderate the session.
The afternoon session will begin at 1:30 p.m. with a keynote address by Oren Lyons, the traditional chief and faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation of the Six Nations of the Iroquois, who is internationally known for his work on Native American issues. His talk will be followed by a panel discussion at 2:45 p.m. on "Political, Economic and Environmental Sovereignty: Contemporary Perspectives (1934-present)." Judith Resnik, the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at the Law School, will moderate.
A dinner and reception beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., will be capped off with readings at the library by Gerald Vizenor, a noted Native American writer, poet and essayist.
Sunday's events will kick off with a panel discussion at 10 a.m. on "Intellectual Sovereignty: Frontiers of Indigenous Thinking," moderated by Carol M. Rose, the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor of Law and Organization. The final event of the weekend will be a pow-wow beginning at 12:30 p.m. in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, 70 Tower Parkway. Sponsored by the Association of Native Americans at Yale College, the pow-wow will feature a dance contest, drumming performances and authentic Native American crafts. Native Americans from diverse North American tribes will participate in the pow-wow.
Admission to all conference events is free and open to the public. While reservations are not required, conference organizers request that all those wishing to attend contact George Miles at the Beinecke Library at (203) 432-2956 or via e-mail to george.miles@yale.edu.
The Yale Native American Studies Conference is sponsored by the Yale Collection of Western Americana, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders, and the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund. Additional support for the conference was given by the Law School, the Yale College Dean's Office, the Department of Religious Studies, the American Studies Program and the Program of Ethnicity, Race and Migration.
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